Welcome to the Women's Microfinance Initiative
Mission: WMI's mission is to work with village-level organizations to provide working capital to women in the lowest income brackets, in developing nations, so that they can engage in income producing activities. Goal: WMI's Goal is to help women build assets so that they can stabilize their income, raise their standard of living and reorient themselves and their families. WMI's small loans bring big changes to impoverished women, who use the money to build small businesses. With pro bono legal assistance from the law firm of Baker & McKenzie in New York, WMI issued its first microloans in January 2008. As of April 2010, WMI has issued over 1,000 loans to women in more than 50 villages. Focusing its current efforts in rural Uganda and Kenya, the WMI loan program is run entirely by local village women. As an end-goal, it seeks to transition experienced borrowers into independent banking so that they can take their rightful place in their country's formal economy. Click here for a snapshot of the WMI Loans as of July 2010 |